Abstract There is a wide array of biomass utilisation pathways to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The characteristic of biomass, the demand for products, and the local constraints determine the sustainability of utilisation. Generic principles and criteria can be applied to the analysis of specific instances. This work develops a decision-making tool for determining the most sustainable use of biomass for carbon management. The mathematical principles are based on break-even analysis and are visualised in the form of a graphical display for transparent communication of results to decision-makers. An essential feature of this tool is that it allows the Emissions-Cost Nexus to be considered in identifying the most sustainable biomass utilisation pathway under different baseline conditions. Economic instruments such as carbon emissions tax can also be determined and calibrated to direct decisions to specific pathways. The use of this tool is illustrated with a case study considering the pyrolysis of two different sources of biomass (residual biomass and energy crop) and plastic waste. Pyrolysis optimised for energy production is generally preferable unless biochar produced is at the quality for soil amendment. However, the change in baseline conditions, e.g. energy demand or carbon emission intensity, could overturn the initially selected utilisation. This result highlights the importance of a better standard to define avoided emissions for appropriate decision making. The case study also suggested that corn stover optimised for energy has a better emission-cost performance than optimised for biochar and carbon sequestration, unless the multiplier effect of biochar application to soil is higher than 1.4. The presented study shows the applicability of the developed method as a useful tool for sustainable biomass and product utilisation.

中文翻译：

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考虑排放-成本关系的可持续生物质利用系统分析工具

摘要 有多种生物质利用途径可以减少温室气体排放。生物质的特性、对产品的需求和当地的限制决定了利用的可持续性。通用原则和标准可以应用于特定实例的分析。这项工作开发了一种决策工具，用于确定最可持续地利用生物质进行碳管理。数学原理基于盈亏平衡分析，并以图形显示的形式可视化，以便将结果透明地传达给决策者。该工具的一个基本特征是它允许在确定不同基线条件下最可持续的生物质利用途径时考虑排放成本关系。还可以确定和校准碳排放税等经济手段，以指导特定途径的决策。该工具的使用通过一个案例研究来说明，该案例研究考虑了两种不同的生物质来源（残余生物质和能源作物）和塑料废物的热解。除非生产的生物炭符合土壤改良剂的质量，否则通常优选为能源生产优化的热解。然而，基线条件的变化，例如能源需求或碳排放强度，可能会推翻最初选择的利用。这一结果凸显了更好的标准的重要性，以定义适当的决策避免排放。案例研究还表明，针对能源优化的玉米秸秆比针对生物炭和碳封存优化的玉米秸秆具有更好的排放成本性能，除非生物炭施用于土壤的乘数效应高于 1.4。所提出的研究表明，所开发的方法作为可持续生物质和产品利用的有用工具的适用性。